Meditation may cut heart attack risk

Meditation may help to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people with existing cardiovascular disease, new research suggests.

Scientists found that in people with narrowed arteries, meditation helped to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and death by 47 per cent.

Participants also benefited from lower blood pressure and stress levels.

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The study, which was presented during the annual meeting of the American Heart Association, involved 201 African-American men and women and was carried out by scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Study co-author Dr Theodore Kotchen, professor of medicine at the medical college, commented: 'This study is an example of the contribution of a lifestyle intervention - stress management - to the prevention of cardiovascular disease in high-risk patients.'

Heart and circulatory disease is the UK's biggest killer, with someone dying every six minutes from a heart attack.

Figures from the British Heart Foundation indicate that around one-fifth of untimely deaths from cardiovascular disease are linked to smoking.

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